MEMPHIS, Tenn. — When voters go to the polls, a question about civil service could be one of the most overlooked items on the November 4th ballot.
Memphis City Councilman Kemp Conrad said, “This is about the basics. This is not sexy. It’s wonky. It’s nerdy, but it’s very important.”
Otis Sanford, WREG-TV’s political commentator, added, “There really isn’t a whole lot of controversy about it. It just hasn’t gotten much attention, much media attention.”
They’re talking about the City of Memphis charter amendment that could impact on-the-job discipline, job promotion, and pay for thousands of police officers, firefighters, and other government workers.
Conrad helped write the charter amendment proposal.
“This is really about better employees, means better service, means a better government. It means a better Memphis,” he said.
The city council, labor unions, and Memphis Mayor A C Wharton’s administration all helped draft the charter amendment.
Thomas Malone heads the Memphis Firefighters Association.
“We don’t agree with everything in it, but based upon the actual civil service part of this process, it has been made better and would generate a quicker and better due process for the employees,” Malone said.
The Civil Service Commission is the board that considers appeals from employees who have been fired, demoted, or suspended for ten days or more and want to challenge their punishment.
“Right now if there is an employee we need to fire, it takes between two-and-a-half and three-and-a-half years for that person to work through the civil service process. With this ordinance, changes we passed in November by paying the commissioners, we cut it down to six months. So, that helps tremendously,” said Conrad.
The proposed charter amendment would also grant the government the formal right to consider job performance in determining pay and promotion, rather than relying on factors such as seniority in union contracts or across-the-board pay increases in the annual budget.
“We don’t the view the part of giving people raises versus giving other people raises. That was not the intent of it as we see. The charter prohibits merit promotions. So, the way they interpret it, that’s not the way we interpret it,” Malone said.
The charter amendment would increase the number of board members from seven to 14 and require that at least seven of the commissioners be licensed attorneys, current or former judges, or have experience as an administrative law judge.
“Our union wanted a wall of the civil service commissioners to be legal people, but the city felt that would be a hindrance in getting spots filled. We agreed half of them would be from the legal sector,” Malone said.
Another proposed rule change addresses situations in which an employee not only faces on-the-job discipline, but also criminal charges.
The new rules say that if an employee faces criminal charges for the same conduct that led to the on-the-job punishment, they can ask for the civil service commission to put their case on hold, but they give up their right to back wages.
Some say it’s a proposal that has some flaws, but some say it could be beneficial to city workers.
“We feel with the changes that have been made, the actual civil service part of it has been made better and better due process for the employees,” Malone said.
“But it’s very important we have an efficient civil service process and that we have a government that stresses performance,” Conrad added
“Again, it’s something that will streamline the civil service process in Memphis. It won’t affect the majority of Memphians. It it will help in terms of efficiency in local government, ” Sanford said.
In a recent Facebook post, the Memphis Police Association urged its members to vote against the measure.
The MPA disagrees with some of the language allowing job performance to be considered in promotions.
